A hydraulic feed system is a hydraulically powered apparatus that is used to linearly displace a rock drill along a feed rail. The hydraulic feed system may be mounted on a wheeled frame or vehicle for transport.
A recurring problem in the mining industry is the manoeuvrability of machinery inside the narrow drifts (underground road ways) inside mines. Not only are the drifts in mines typically very narrow, but they frequently have sharp corners, making it very hard to manoeuvre large machines. This is a serious problem with so-called “jumbos”, i.e. large wheeled hydraulic feed systems that have long feed rails. The feed rails must be long enough to accommodate a rock drill, drill string, hose drum and centralizers. A traditional jumbo feed composed of a single long rail is thus exceedingly difficult to manoeuvre inside the drifts. A need therefore exists for an effective solution to this technical problem.